Book Image

Azure Active Directory for Secure Application Development

By : Sjoukje Zaal
Book Image

Azure Active Directory for Secure Application Development

By: Sjoukje Zaal

Overview of this book

Azure Active Directory for Secure Application Development is your one-stop shop for learning how to develop secure applications using modern authentication techniques with Microsoft Azure AD. Whether you’re working with single-tenant, multi-tenant, or line-of-business applications, this book contains everything you need to secure them. The book wastes no time in diving into the practicalities of Azure AD. Right from the start, you’ll be setting up tenants, adding users, and registering your first application in Azure AD. The balance between grasping and applying theory is maintained as you move from the intermediate to the advanced: from the basics of OAuth to getting your hands dirty with building applications and registering them in Azure AD. Want to pin down the Microsoft Graph, Azure AD B2C, or authentication protocol best practices? We’ve got you covered. The full range of Azure AD functionality from a developer perspective is here for you to explore with confidence. By the end of this secure app development book, you’ll have developed the skill set that so many organizations are clamoring for. Security is mission-critical, and after reading this book, you will be too.
Table of Contents (14 chapters)
1
Part 1: Getting Started with the Microsoft Identity Platform
5
Part 2: Authentication and Protocols
9
Part 3: Azure AD B2C

The OpenID Connect protocol and its specifications

Azure AD uses the OpenID Connect protocol to power the sign-in flows. OpenID Connect is an authentication protocol that is built on top of OAuth 2.0. This identity layer can be used to securely sign in a user to an application. When using the implementation provided by the Microsoft identity platform, you can also make use of features to sign users in and add API access to your apps.

OAuth 2.0 provides an authorization protocol, and OpenID Connect extends this protocol to be used as an authentication protocol. You can perform single sign-on using OAuth by extending this to an authentication protocol with OpenID Connect. To enable clients to verify the identity of the user, OpenID Connect introduces a security token that is called the ID token. OpenID Connect specifies that ID tokens are JWTs. There is basic profile information about the user stored in this ID token. Additionally, OpenID Connect introduces an UserInfo Endpoint, which...